Sweaters
by 44GreenBlinks
Summary: Originally called Quinn Abercromby One Shot. See now it's not as lame a title. A one chapter story about the friendship of Quinn, Creedy, and the introduced character of Stef. R&R please and thank you. Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for Stef.


Just a quick note here. I was at my cottage the past weekend and I made a huge fire and I was wearing my favourite sweater (it's a guys sweater) and all the smoke had been blowing on me so the smell of fire was embedded into the sweater. For the rest of the day I was sitting there just smelling my sweater because it smelled awesome and it just made me really happy. And that's when it came to me. That is exactly like what Quinn's sweaters would be like in the story. So keep that in mind if you want to picture what the sweaters are like. Anyways, enjoy.

* * *

"Quinn! Quinn!" I was running around the dilapidated castle that had become our home trying to find Quinn. I turned the corner towards the kitchen and finally ran into him.

"Quinn! Guess what?" I said excitedly.

"What? What is it? Is something wrong?" He looked worried.

"No, no Quinn, nothing like that. I have a surprise for you."

"Well go on then, do tell," He looked more relaxed now. He really should learn that I am a generally excitable person and to not think dragons are attacking every time I run into a room looking for him. But then again when most people do that, dragons just happen to be attacking.

"Well I went out looking at that old set of ruins and—" He cut me off.

"You went out by yourself?"

"Quinn, I'm fine," I almost didn't get that sentence out in time.

"You could have been killed."

"But I wasn't."

"You damn well could have been."

"It's not like I went out far."

"Geez, let the poor girl tell you what your surprise is. I'm getting impatient," The charm mixed with a heavy Scottish accent piped in.

"You should listen to Creedy, he's smart," My cockiness and confidence had returned, "Now anyway, as I was trying to say, I went out looking at that old set of ruins and I found a passage to an underground level. But, I can't tell you what's down there because I have to show you, because I have to see the look on your face when you see it."

"Is this look going to be groundbreaking?" Creedy asked with a smirk.

"Most undoubtedly," I replied, matching his smirk.

Quinn sighed, rolled his eyes, and said, "Should we take the horses?"

"Yes, as well as those little sack things that hang off the saddles. Stuff needs to get carried."

The three of us went and got two of the horses ready, seeing as how I have not get mastered the art of riding on top of a car with legs that could whip me off its back and trample me to death.

"So, Stef, which one of us are you riding with?" Quinn asked as he got on to his horse.

"Obviously, she's going to go with you Quinn. We all know how much she wants to ride your horse."

"Creedy!" I punched him in the arm.

Creedy got up onto the other horse while Quinn helped me up onto his. I wrapped my arms around his waist and we were off. The degree of closeness while riding the horse forced me to rest my head on Quinn's back the entire way. Not that I minded.

The ride gave me time to think over the three of us. We had been together for, who knows how long now? Each of us was the best friend each other had. Creedy and I were defiantly the most alike. We were both keen on throwing a smart ass comment into any situation. We had discussed that once and concluded that in what the world has become there has to be a few people who can lighten the mood. We were both very free people, we loved the outdoors and exploring and generally having fun. We sort of had that brother-sister relationship. We would constantly tease each other and get into friendly fights that sometimes turned a little violent, but it was all in good fun.

Quinn, on the other hand, was probably the most opposite person to Creedy and I. Not saying that he isn't funny or doesn't enjoy a good time. Quinn was just the more cautious type. But generally, that comes with being the leader of a ragtag group of the earth's survivors. He looked out for everyone, no matter who they were or how they felt about him. The kids loved Quinn. For some of them, he was their only father figure. I've always found it really amusing that Quinn's two best friends are not like him at all. Sometimes, you can really tell that he can't stand some of our antics, but honestly, I think he'd be lost without us. Actually, the three of us would be lost without each other.

We finally arrived at the ruins and tied the two horses up to a rock. I lead the guys to where I had found the secret passage and lifted the opening. We all scurried down the stairs to see a dark, damp hallway.

"Well, this is quite the find," Creedy was being sarcastic again.

I led them to the second door on the left into a room overrun by cupboards and drawers.

"Come on Quinn, open one." Both Creedy and I were glued to the look on Quinn's face as he walked over and opened a cupboard. We saw his jaw drop as he looked at rows upon rows of canned food.

"They are all full of them. The people who lived here really stocked up." Quinn still hadn't closed his mouth. At last, he turned to me and his gaping expression morphed into the biggest smile I have ever seen. He pulled me into a giant bear hug, which totally engulfed me seeing as how I'm about 5'5" and he's around 6'2".

With his British accent he kept repeating, "I love you," each time he got progressively louder; and pretty much, jumping for joy with me still being taken over by his chest.

"This is great, in all my years with this guy, I have never, not once, seen him act like this," Creedy was ecstatic.

Quinn quickly composed himself after that and let go of me.

"Alright well, there's no way we can take it all at once. So, we'll take as much as we can bare and come back with more people later," Quinn directed.

"Aye, aye, captain," Creedy saluted.

We packed all we could without killing the horses and we were back to the castle in no time. Everyone seemed to have a gleam of joy for once, knowing that we could last for a very long time on all of this food. Plus, we may even be able to plant some of it and harvest more.

"Well, I think it's time for me to take a nap," I thought out loud.

Quinn and Creedy waved me off and it was pretty easy to tell that their conversation changed as soon as they thought I was out of earshot, but I wasn't interested enough to spy on them. I needed sleep.

About an hour and a half later I had awoken and wandered toward the kitchen hoping to get a snack. Of course, Quinn was in there. Honestly, any time you want to find Quinn, your best bet is to look in the kitchen.

"Hey, I hope you don't mind that I stole your sweater," I smiled at him.

I had nabbed it before I fell asleep. I loved Quinn's sweaters. First, they were so warm and comfy it didn't take me long to fall asleep when I was wearing one. But, I think it also has to do with the fact that they remind me of Quinn. This is going to sound really lame, but I guess I feel safe when I have something that reminds me of him. Quinn is the protector. He has kept me safe since the moment we met. I've never really told him that, but I wouldn't be surprised if he already knew.

"Nope, no problem at all," he got up from his seat.

"I love your sweaters."

"So I've heard."

"What is it?" I inquired.

"What is what?"

"You have a secret."

Quinn was never any good at trying to conceal a secret from me. Apparently no one else can tell when he's got one. I really don't see how, he has a really big tell. He won't look you directly in the eye. He'll look at your nose or your eyebrow or your mouth, just not the eyes.

"Actually it's more like a surprise."

"Ooo, I like surprises."

"Well, I thought that since you pretty much singlehandedly saved us, I would treat you to a private meal from the first batch."

He led me over to the table and sat me down. Then he walked over to the food cooking over the fire and made up a couple of plates and brought them over to the table. It wasn't half bad. Actually it was some of the best food we've had in a while. It was canned beef, corn, Romano beans and a cup of Creedy's special alcoholic brew.

It was a great meal. We talked about everything under the sun and were having the time of our lives. Unfortunately, dinner had to end sometime and we cleaned up and parted ways.

The next morning, I woke up in a great mood and was ready to start the day. I had slept in Quinn's sweater again. I walked down the hallway humming a tune until I bumped, literally, into Creedy.

"Watch it, Creedy," I gave him a playful shove.

"Someone's in a good mood. How was your one on one dinner last night?"

"How'd you know about that?"

"Please, it was my idea. I'm just doing my job as the humble matchmaker."

Creedy was always able to tell I had kind of a thing for Quinn. But I mean come on, who wouldn't have a thing for Quinn.

"Oh, you're a clever one, aren't you?" I smirked.

"Well, how was it?"

"It was good. We talked and laughed and ate."

"Ahh, you are of no good information. I'll see you 'round," he laughed and walked off.

The day went pretty routinely, except for the fact that I had all the songs from an old movie in my head. It's a good movie. Of course, I haven't seen it in years, but those were some catchy songs. It was a musical about newspaper boys from 1899 who go on strike because the newspaper owners jacked up the price of the 'papes' and the boys can't afford them anymore. Awesome movie. You have to love 'Newsies.'

That night I had a strange dream about how an old friend of mine and me were moving into an apartment along with Jack Kelly (from Newsies). My dad was helping us move in and kept insisting to me that Jack was gay.

The next thing I knew I was being shaken awake by someone sitting next to me on my bed.

"Stef, get up," the British accent clued me in.

"No, sleep now," I pulled the covers over my head.

"Come on now, up," he pulled the covers off my head.

I finally opened my eyes and glared up at the bearded British man who had taken me away from Jack. He responded with a smirk and his vampire teeth, as I called them, were showing.

"What do you want?"

"I have to show you something."

He was finally able to pull me out of bed. Normally I would have been a little upset that I was being pulled around barefoot and still wearing my pyjamas but I was too tired to care. We ended up on the outside steps.

"I don't know how you get up this early every day."

We both sat down halfway down the stairs.

"Look, it hasn't been this way for a while."

I looked up into the sky at the beautiful sunrise. This was a rare occurrence. Usually the sky is filled with smog and smoke from the dragons, but today there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. It was winter, though you wouldn't know it. I miss those really cold days were you would get frostbite in a matter of minutes. The coldest temperatures we get now are those of around, what we used to call, early fall weather. The dragons hate this time of year and rarely show themselves for months until the temperature rises again.

"Wow," was all I could mutter.

I kind of blacked out what happened next but somehow Quinn's arm had found its way around my shoulder. My head was resting on his shoulder and his head was resting on top of my head. Time seemed to have stopped. We just sat there, not talking and not moving. Even our breathing seemed to be down to a minimum, neither of us wanting to break the fragile world around us. It was all just so perfect and both of us were trying to savour the moment for as long as we could before it was done.

"Quinn," Jared's voice broke us out our trance.

We both turned our heads to see the young boy standing there looking embarrassed.

"What is it Jared?" Quinn asked.

"I need your help with something."

"I'll be there in a minute." Jared went inside.

Quinn looked at me, smiled, took his arm off me and got up to go inside. I stayed out there for a while sort of taking in everything that had just happened. I didn't know what to think of it. What happened there? Was that supposed to mean something? Or was it just a lapse of judgement brought forth from the rare peacefulness of the earth? Either way it still kind of put me in a good mood.

But, I mean, it's not like we haven't had our awkward moments before, it was just different this time because we were both unconscious the last time something like this happened. See, all the kids have gone to Quinn's room when they were scared during the night at one point and, as embarrassing as it is, so have I.

In my defence it was a really freaky night. There was a giant thunderstorm that sounded like it was ripping through the roof. So, I made my way over to Quinn's room and knocked on the door and he answered, expecting one of the kids to be there. When he saw me, he smirked, pulled me into a hug and chuckled slightly.

There were already a few kids in there and the only available spot was the other side of Quinn's bed, so of course I took it. We went to sleep on complete opposite ends of the bed, back to back and somehow when we woke up we were in the middle of the bed, face to face, and limbs entangled. When I say face to face, I mean my face to his chest and when I say limbs entangled, I mean his arms around me and my legs between his legs.

From my vantage point, of Quinn's chest, I couldn't really tell what exactly was happening but he had woken up at about the same time and we separated, feeling awkward.

Actually, that was a much more awkward experience than this one had been. After that whole episode, Quinn and I had a hard time talking to each other until of course Creedy intervened and made it all better.

Wait a minute. Creedy! Finally, an idea had come to me, if anyone would know if this was planned and what it meant it would be Creedy. Quinn told him everything and so did I so he would know. I ran off to try and find him.

Eventually I found Creedy and planned to ask him about this whole deal very cleverly.

"Creedy, did that whole thing have anything to do with you?" It didn't come out that way.

"Did what have to do with me?"

"Did you give him that idea?"

"It would really help if I knew what the hell we were talking about."

I told Creedy all about the ordeal and then asked again, "Was that your doing?"

"No, not at all. Quinn didn't even mention anything like that to me."

"So do you think it was a spur of the moment kind of thing, or did he plan it?"

"I'm not sure. But I'm going to guess that it was probably a spur of the moment thing because how could he plan clear skies and a beautiful sunrise."

"Maybe he's Jesus," I laughed.

"Well, there's a possibility. He does sort of look like Jesus in a whole British dragon fighter kind of way."

As you can probably guess both of us ended straying off onto a completely different topic. That conversation got my mind off of the strange events of the day. It also helped that I didn't see Quinn for the rest of the day. I mean, what the hell could Jared have wanted that took all day? I spent the rest of the day walking around aimlessly looking for something to do.

Eventually it was time for bed. The only problem was that I couldn't sleep, and it was getting late. Not even another one of Quinn's sweaters, which I stole, could put me to sleep. I decided to get up and look for something that would make me tired. I did not find that. But I did find Quinn sitting on the floor in the hallway near his room.

"Hey, what are you doing up?" I asked him.

"Couldn't sleep."

I laughed slightly, "Me too."

I sat down next to him and he noticed the sweater.

"You really gotta stop stealing from me."

"But, I like them."

"Why do you love those sweaters so much?"

"If you must know, I like them because they remind me of you and when I think of you, I feel safe. Plus they are really, really warm."

"Aww, isn't that sweet," he had a sarcastic grin on.

"You know what was always the key line from serial killer movies? The girl that didn't know that she was doing the serial killer would always tell him that she felt safe with him. Now, I'm not saying that you are a serial killer or anything, but I mean you would think that these girls would at least catch on to the fact that they are with a complete psychopath. It's usually at that point when a tiny part of me wants the guy to kill her right there. But then there's the more reasonable part of me that disregards the whole sce—"

He was kissing me. It was no porn kiss. It was sweet and soft and short. After he pulled away, I looked up at him with, what I'm guessing, was the most retarded expression ever.

"Alright, it's time for you to get some sleep."

With that, he pulled me closer and made me rest my head on him. And there we were, sitting on the floor, with his arm around me, and me dozing away.


End file.
